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Water-safety training

The article regarding the drowning of a 15-year-old in an overturned kayak ("Teen dies when kayak capsizes near Alexandria," Aug. 4) is a painful reminder of the need for water-safety training.

You may be a good swimmer, and you may be wearing a flotation device, but neither helps if you have had no instruction and practice in getting out of an overturned kayak. The flotation device pushes you into the kayak, fostering a sense of panic. Wilderness Inquiry and the Park Service are resources for such training.

J. Scanlan, West St. Paul

Facts about IRS workers

A recent article by Jeff Bergner ("IRS: A deeper look doesn't look pretty," July 29) suggests a link between my union and the alleged processing problems with 501(c)(4) applications at the IRS.

My union, the National Treasury Employees Union, is proud to represent 150,000 federal employees in 31 federal agencies, including the IRS. NTEU, by law, only represents non-supervisory, frontline employees, not executives, managers or policy-makers.

The facts are that numerous NTEU union-represented employees voluntarily provided sworn testimony to congressional committees investigating the tax-exempt application process and were praised by those leading the investigation for their cooperation and professionalism.

Without a union to ensure that their rights would be protected and any retaliation prevented, it is much less likely that these employees would have felt comfortable coming forward.

Mr.

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Bergner also tried to make an issue of a visit by NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley to the White House on March 31, 2010, and falsely suggested that she had a one-on-one meeting with the president dealing with the IRS.

President Kelley -- along with some 200 others, leaders from both large and small businesses, policy experts, labor representatives and workers -- represented NTEU at the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility.

The goal of the forum, which was open to the media and webcast, was to explore the importance of creating workplace flexibilities such as telework. While the president made a speech at this event, there was no interaction between any of the attendees and the president.

By playing fast and loose with the facts, articles such as Mr. Bergner's do a disservice to the American people and the federal workers who work hard to serve the public.

Duane Pulford, Lauderdale

The writer is president of NTEU Chapter 29.

$2M for bike paths?

So the "bike boulevards" are nearly a million dollars over budget (Aug. 7). Wow.

It never ceases to amaze me how much money the St. Paul City Council has lying around or that it chooses to borrow for any lame-brained idea that someone comes up with. Two million dollars for bike paths? And $200,000 for a bike ramp? Say those last two statements out loud ... really? $2.2 million for that?

I seem to remember that riding a bike can actually be done on streets (free) ... and parking my bike? Locked to a tree, post, railing (free) ... never knew I needed to have a "path and ramp" to "ride and park" my bike.

Oh, and the city plans to put up signs to designate "bike boulevards." Really? So bicyclists need signs to tell them that they can use the street as a path for biking? How much of the $2.2 million is for signs?

You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. It appears that the St. Paul City Council is never lacking in finding ways to "blow" taxpayers money on boondoggles and feel-good projects.

Meanwhile, the streets of St. Paul still look like bombed-out Third-World-country roads. While our elected officials steal money from projects of actual brick-and-mortar to pay for bike paths and bike ramps ... and people say that government is not bloated.

Brian L. Campbell, North St. Paul

Accused of supporting voter ID

I noticed two letters about the Democratic auditor's primary race between Otto and Entenza. I had to re-read them because they were about voter ID law and Otto was being accused of being for voter ID.

Now, in the Democratic Party, it is a true insult to be thought to be in favor of making sure that the people voting are eligible voters. In the Democratic Party of today, if you are in favor of stopping voter fraud, you are an unacceptable candidate. It was amusing to hear the Otto supporters assure everyone that she was not for photo ID. It sounded like, "Don't worry, everybody, Matt Entenza is not the only candidate in this race that wants voter fraud to be easier."

Remember the last election, when Democrats pulled out all stops to stop the photo ID law? They were sticking with their mythology of all these supposed eligible voters who don't have ID -- also claiming to be in favor of voter ID but just not this one. "If we stop this amendment, we can fix it," they claimed.

The Democrats control all of state government, but no fix yet. This issue is probably down the list of damaging things the Democratic Party does to the state and country, but it is illustrative of how fearful they are of only eligible voters voting.

Patrick Hawkins, Cottage Grove

A Center Party

Based on the information provided in the news, columns and opinion pieces in the Pioneer Press, I am convinced that the Republicans and Democrats are clearly too polarized and obstructive to cooperate on the most critical issues facing us today. We need a Center Party (C.P.) to get any governing done at the federal level in the USA.

The C.P. I envision would accept no contributions from special interests like big business, unions or pressure groups, only from individuals. Therefore, its candidates would not be beholden to anyone. C.P. could concentrate on fixing the big problems: balance the federal budget by creating a simple, workable tax code and forcefully but logically adjusting all entitlements; find practical solutions to the twin disasters of public education inadequacy and high un-employment in our country; establish a 25-year plan to use the economic and military strength of the United States to help the downtrodden people of the world; arrive at sovereign but humane methods of securing our borders and welcoming those immigrants we need to support our economy.

C.P. could avoid the issues that create polarity by stepping back from them. Our platform would state that any two adults can get married and have the legal benefits of marriage, basic forms of contraception are free to those who want them, legal abortion is available for purchase by those to whom it is morally acceptable (or perhaps can be underwritten by contributions from supporters), and we will leave the interpretations of the Bill of Rights to the court system.

Oh, and C.P. would not have to advertise very much -- the negative ads it would attract from the well-funded right and left would do the trick.